[Amalie, 14 years - The first Danish etherization]

Etherizations were developed in USA and was applied for the first time of the dentist Thomas Greene Morton (1819-1868) in 1846. Professor Dr. Ole Secher (1918-1996) studied the first Danish anaesthesias and discovered that the first etherization was carried out in February 1847 at the surgical department, Almindelig Hospital in Copenhagen. The patient was a young girl, with an albus tumore in the knee. She was etherized during an appliqué of ferrum candens. Dr. Secher was not able to find the case record, but she was identified in the hospital records dated 1846 and 1847. The hospital was separated in an alms department and a hospital. Patients were not allowed to stay at the hospital for more than 6 months, then they were placed in the alms department. The etherization was carried out in the alms department, to which the girl was transferred from the hospital. Reviewing the hospital records for the previous 6 months the girl was identified at the surgical department. Her name was Amalie, and she was 14 years old. She died two months after the etherization in April 1847.